Anti-abortion group wants attacks on Rubio and Cruz to stop

A leading anti-abortion activist group is calling on GOP presidential campaigns to quit criticizing the inflexible positions of Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.

As moderate candidates fight for oxygen in New Hampshire, Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser sent Cruz and Rubio’s rivals a letter on Thursday urging them to stop attacking the two senators for opposing abortion exceptions in cases of rape and incest. Dannenfelser said her organization agrees with Cruz and Rubio on opposing exceptions and said attacks on their “courageous” positions are misguided and counterproductive.

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“These attacks ill-serve a party that has pledged, in one form or another, since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 ‘to restore protection of the right to life for unborn children,’” Dannenfelser wrote. “Let me be clear: An attack on this aspect of these candidates’ pro-life positions is an attack on the pro-life movement as a whole.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said on MSNBC on Thursday that Rubio’s opposition to abortion exceptions will hurt him in New Hampshire, a state that typically rewards politicians who are moderate on social issues, at least compared to Iowa.

“That's the kind of position that New Hampshire voters would be really concerned about. I'm pro-life, but I believe that rape, incest and life of the mother, as Ronald Reagan did, should be exceptions to that rule,” Christie said.

His criticisms of Rubio’s position follow those of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a surrogate for Jeb Bush whothis week tagged Rubio for running too far to the right and Cruz for a position that’s “hard to sell with young women.”

“If a woman is raped in Ted Cruz’s world, she’s going to have to carry the baby of the rapist. I'm pro-life, but I won't go there,” said Graham, who is typically closely linked with SBA List and was the lead sponsor of a 20-week federal ban on abortion.

That bill, prohibiting abortions after 20 weeks, united the Republican field, as Dannenfelser sought to get buy-in from every major candidate in support of the legislation. All of the GOP candidates eventually came around; but New Hampshire’s more centrist leanings are now dividing them as Christie, Bush, Rubio and Ohio Gov. Kasich all seek to become the alternative to Cruz and Donald Trump.

Those divisions, Dannenfelser said, will hurt the party’s standing in the long run.

“These tactical broadsides for perceived short-term advantage are incredibly damaging to the pro-life movement at a point in which momentum is on our side. Our movement has worked diligently, especially in the wake of the 2012 elections, to put pro-life candidates on offense and pro-abortion candidates on defense,” she wrote Thursday to the presidential candidates. “I urge you and your campaigns to reject Planned Parenthood’s talking points and instead keep the pro-life movement on offense.”